Chapter One
Sapphira
“Princess Sapphira, I remember you now.”
The goat Fae’s shocked face made me laugh. My mother’s power over Emrys and everyone else’s mind in the kingdom was tied to the onyx tomb. Now that it had been opened, everyone remembered my true identity.
Tears rolled down Dris’s shimmering cheeks, and I wanted to hug her and thank her for helping me. From that very first day in the library, the owl Fae had stood by my side. Now we needed to come up with a detailed plan on how I’d fulfill my vow to return magic to the realm.
“It’s been you the whole time.” The rage in Rune’s shocked voice struck me like a bullet in my heart.
My knees wobbled from the sight of my mate. As expected, sorrow and guilt hit me when I met his silent fury-filled stare. I had so much to discuss with him, including the relationship with his brother, Tor, on our travels here. Instantly, I felt weary from all the conversations to come and squared my shoulders to face the consequences.
“Do you remember everything?” Tor asked, feeling the tension rising between his brother and me.
“I remember everything from my time as a human, everything before that is spotty.” I diverted my gaze to the others. Desmire, my father, sat calmly next to the melted tomb, and my mother stood in front of him. Her graceful hand rested on his side while my parents looked at me.
The memories she gave me of a human childhood with Mariam were still in my head. When I was a human, I didn’t have parents besides Mariam, and now as a Fae I did. They loved me so much, they wrecked their lives to save mine.
Rune stomped out of the room, and my throat constricted. I wanted to run after him, to explain, to beg for his forgiveness.
“What do we do now?” Dris asked.
I blinked my tears away. “We station more guards at the realm ports of entry. Now that we’ve exposed ourselves, and where we are generally located, the Dramens will search without rest for us.” Besides Tor, no one else had suffered at the Dramens’s violent human hands yet.
“Soon, I will be traveling to Crystoria to find out where the legendary Heart Tree is. It must be restored from its sickened state and then if my plan works the way it should, magic will be free once again, hopefully, before Verin or the Dramens start a war.” I prayed to the universe that I could do this, or the last twenty years were for nothing.
My magic pulsed in my chest, giving me the hope to ignore the doubts. After everything I’d gone through to get here, the human Sapphira and the Fae Princess were merged. I was both. Where the weaknesses of the human version failed, the Fae version took over, and vice versa.
“I’ll be with you on this journey.” Emrys smiled broadly, accepting who I was and still happily bound to me as a spy via a blood oath.
“Me too!” Dris excitedly raised her hand. I wasn’t sure if she was more elated as a librarian going to Crystoria with their great library or as a best friend uncovering the mystery before us.
“As will I.” Tor smiled his sweet grin . . . always the protector.
“Great. We have lots to do and not a lot of time to do it.” I gave them my best smile, hoping it showed them I was confident in myself and this plan.
“Moon,” my mother whispered and I walked toward her. I remembered her and we were a family again. Father looked into my eyes and I wished he wasn’t stuck as a dragon so I could hear his voice, feel his big arms around me.
“Mother.” I touched her pale cheek softly. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she embraced me, her hands trembling against my back.
“I love you, Mother. Thank you for everything.” I didn’t know if she understood me since she went crazy after expending all her powers to change the memories of the kingdom. Still, I surrounded her with warmth and love.
“Moon, moon, moon,” she sang, and pulled back. Her smile sparkled, and she lightly pushed me away. She was telling me to go. There was so much to do, so much I needed to figure out.
“Princess?” Tor stepped away from Dris and Emrys, who were talking to Nyx, my oldest friend and handmaiden. Tor’s energy crashed into me. I needed to say something, anything to show him where I stood.
“I do love you. That will never change, but I know what you are to Rune, and I know I can’t compete.” Nothing in his posture declared he was upset about his words.
“Why did you even start anything with me if you knew?”
“I didn’t know for sure. I just remembered what the princess looked like in my dreams, and Nyx was not it. I sort of put it together why the seer Celestine told me to find you. I think a part of me thought that you being away from Rune, without your memory . . . that your heart might fall for me. But another part of me knew it wasn’t going to happen, even when you said you loved me. I knew you meant it but not like the love you have for him.”
My chest ached for him. A defeated look began to show in his deep blue eyes.
“I want to assist you in this journey. I need to do this.” He clenched his fist.
“Of course you’re coming with us. You have always been my protector.” I hugged him and sighed, grateful that Tor hadn’t given into my demands to sleep with him before I regained my memory. Otherwise the guilt would have eaten me alive. I would have hated him and myself.
“I think he’s going to need some serious groveling.” Tor pulled back from my embrace and gave me his smile that I loved.
“Heart Tree help me.”
“You might need more than a legendary tree to help face a pissed-off werewolf.”
“Thank you for finding me and bringing me here.” I leaned over to kiss his cheek then walked toward the exit. I had a mate to find and beg for forgiveness.
Chapter Two
Rune
Twenty years.
I’d thought my mate was trapped in onyx for twenty years. Meanwhile, she lived in the dangerous human world as one of them.
The Dramens had touched her. She had been alone, and then Tor . . . I wanted to kill him. He’d had her, my mate, the other half of my being. She had loved him and was willing to sacrifice everything to save him.
“Fuck!” I roared into the legendary Hallowstag Woods. I needed to go somewhere quiet and away from any casualties of my rage.
She had lied to me. She kept her plan hidden from me, and I stayed here waiting like a god damn puppy for her instead of scouring the earth to find her. Rage flooded my vision and I punched a dead tree until blood ran from my knuckles. Wood splinted into my skin, and the bite barely soothed the internal pain consuming me.
I heard her steps before she entered the clearing.
“I’m sorry.” I’d spent almost every night since she arrived thinking of her voice . . . how much I hated it and hated the unwanted warmth it stirred in my stomach.
“Twenty fucking years.” I scoffed; her apology wasn’t enough.
“Rune.” My hands stopped pummeling the wood when my name fell from her lips. A demanding force inside me urged that I go to her, to be with my mate.
“For twenty years I thought you were inside that tomb. I tried everything I could to break it, to get you out of it. I never gave up hope of seeing you again.” I faced her. Memories of our past flew through my mind and I shut them down. I’d been tricked, made to believe I loved someone else.